Apocalypse Now (1979)
Dir. Francis Ford Coppola
Starring Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, Lawrence Fishburn & Robert Duvall
Ranked #30 on AFI’s Top 100 Films of All Time
There is a true certainty when it comes to film. Film always turns to real life and the events that change society when it comes to telling a story about history and or the people in it. One of those is the Vietnam War and while some were ok, handfuls were amazing. Today I get to watch one of those amazing ones. 100 movies in 100 days is Apocalypse Now.
Captain Willard is a special forces operative with a massive drinking problem. After leaving the field of battle to stay in Saigon, he is summoned to speak with two intelligence officers who give him his new orders. It seems that a Colonel William Kurtz has gone rogue somewhere in Cambodia and they want his leadership terminated with extreme prejudice. Willard hops on a navy boat to up the Nung River in hopes of finding Kurtz and all the while reads his dossier along the way. Eventually Willard finds the village and temple Kurtz is holed up in and infiltrates. Kurtz waxes poetic about the will of the Viet Cong and their willingness to go to greater lengths to win. After telling Willard his ideologies of life and war, Willard kills him and escapes with a member of the naval boat team.
Vietnam has a profound effect on not only America in general but also in terms of the gritty realism that was now being shown on the screen in movie theaters everywhere. Gone were the whistle happy movies of WWII and epic musicals. Now were films about reality and the real effects of what a war, supported by the general public or not has on people that fight in it. While movies like Full Metal Jacket, Platoon and others tried to give a more realistic approach to the subject matter, Apocalypse Now was anything but different but overall just a better film than them all.
Coppola crafts a remarkable film that has little to do with war and politics and more to do with character and their souls. The war is able to reveal truths about ourselves and the situations we are in. Truths that we would prefer not to discover.
What this movie is able to do is give us a visual treat to go with the small amount of but meaningful dialog. Every scene seems to want to outdo itself as we go on Willard’s adventure. Scenes like Willard on the helicopter patrol attacking a Vietnam village with Col. Kilgore. Not only are we treated to massive explosion after explosion but it is all done to the great music of Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries. Another that stands out is the scene where Willard joins Chef, a crewmember on the naval boat in the forest looking for mangoes. How the massive trees dwarf the two men is awesome.
The acting, particularly by Brando is just fun to watch. While most of the dialog is sparse or overridden by the massive explosions and gunfire, when Brando talks, waxes poetic everything is at a hush. He delivers the poem with such precision that you are left in awe by his presence.
Of course the history of this movie sometimes far exceeds the finished product as seen in the documentary Heart of Darkness. Consistent bickering and doubt over the film coupled with Brando and his salary caused the budget for this film to almost triple what it was originally set for. One cannot watch this film without watching this thing as a companion piece.
Coppola was a force in the film world in the seventies with Apocalypse Now and the Godfather parts one and two but also with films like The Conversation. While he is not part of the system in turning out films like he did earlier, his early films stand a test of time that few directors have. Apocalypse Now is just one of those films.
5/5
James
The Life of a Filmmaker moving @ 24 fps 